Embed Widget

Widget Preview

Widget Code

As an immediate response to the war in Israel-Palestine, Sabine Lichtenfels initiated a Vision Camp in the West-bank, July 23rd – 29th, which hosted around 50 participants from Israel, Palestine and beyond. It is imperative that this work continues. In support of this we, the Grace Foundation, have invited 8 peace activists [update Aug. 21st: 7 peace activists] from Israel and Palestine to come to the Tamera Peace Research Center in Portugal and to stay for a further period of reflection, envisioning and the creation of a strategy for a sustainable peace project in Israel-Palestine.

Aerial art with 300 participants from over thirty countries at the International Summer University in Tamera, Portugal

This action was facilitated by activist John Quigley (August 5th, 2014)

Please see our latest campaign updates (August 21st and 28th) for current information!

Why continue the Vision Camp?

We need a vision for peace in order to end the war.

The Vision camp in the Westbank showed the immense potential for reconciliation and deeper humanity. The region needs the permanent establishment of such places in order to realise this; to support the step out of the cycle of war and into the creation of something new.

Some of the 50 peace activists are envisioning and planning the manifestation of a Peace Research Village in the Middle East (PRV-ME), a real model for a society in which trust and humanity are stronger than fear and hate; a model of coexistence between Israelis and Palestinians. As difficult as that currently seems to be, we were convinced during the Vision Camp that this is the most urgent and effective act that can be taken right now.

What are the next steps?

Time for reflection and redefining the vision of the Peace Research Village Middle East.

Activating a Global Public - core carriers of the Vision Camp in the Westbank stayed in the Middle East to prepare a major publicity campaign which will be launched in early 2015. A first draft can be published soon.Lee Ziv will now come to the Tamera Peace Research Center as a representative of this campaign team, to align with the group who is carrying the vision of the Peace Research Village Middle East.

Further education in peacework including conflict resolution, water management and alternative ecological energy production

Training in spiritual practices to support the sustainability of peace activists.

What do we need the money for?

We invite: Ali Abu Awwad, Gabriel Meyer Halevy, Lee Ziv, Uri Ayalon, Shahd Abu Hamad, Emma Shamba Ayalon, Meera Eilabouni, Seham Ikhlayel (descriptions of the participants you can find further down: section 'TEAM').[Update August 21st: Ali Abu Awwad and Gabriel Meyer Halevy could not come to Tamera now due to Visa complications. Instead Dror Zohar joined the call to continue the work of the Vision Camp.]

The Grace Foundation collects the money for the manifestation of the Peace Research Village Middle East and for the Scholarship Fund to finance peace education.

More Information about the Vison Camp in Israel-Palestine

As another outbreak of violence erupted in Gaza, local and international peaceworkers gathered for a vigil in the West Bank. They lived simply in the midst of shootings and bombings; creating community, sharing from their hearts, in silence and in tears. They bore witness and worked to stay with grace in the face of senseless killing. In the past three weeks there have been over 1000 human victims including the shooting of three Palestinians in the village closest to the vision camp. The participants of the camp faced into untold pain, suffering, desperation and speechlessness.

One of the main achievements of the gathering was the commitment of the participants to the following statement. Below is an extract from this.

"What we all agree on is: Enough! Stop this killing. No solution can come from war! Each innocent victim of this war is one too many! We refuse to be enemies. We are calling out to all parties: Stop this war! … The civil population is being lied to on both sides, and the world is mostly misled by the media. … Many countries are delivering weapons and enriching themselves through the war.We are striving to convert trust, peace, justice and compassion into realities .... One Palestinian participant, Ali Abu Awwad said, “We are not two sides; we are one side. We have one common enemy: hatred" …The global system of domination thrives through our powerlessness. We have decided to step out of powerlessness …We can change this feeling of desperation into readiness for transformation.

We are aware that those who are against war need a vision for peace. We envision breaking the cycle of victimization, occupation, hatred and revenge. For years now, many of us have been working on new models for living. Now it is our task to demonstrate credible alternatives: stepping out of the system of complicity and stepping into a network of solidarity and compassion.

Killing cannot lead us to a free or protected land … this land will never be holy while we keep watering it with blood.

We love our countries, our homes, and this earth. We declare ourselves to be global citizens for peace! We are calling out to doctors, water experts, ecologists, technologists, peace activists, decision-makers, spiritual leaders, peace journalists, film-makers, politicians and each and everyone of you: Let us come together and put our wisdom to work! Let us overcome the walls of separation. Together, we will create completely new ways of sharing this planet.”

Here you can listen to a Live-Interview from the Vision Camp with Sabine Lichtenfels, Sami Awad, Ali Abu Awwad and Gabriel Meyer Halvey:

Meeting of peace activists from Israel, Palestine and other countries in the Vision Camp, West-Bank, July 2014

What is The Grace Foundation?

The Grace Foundation was established in Switzerland in 2007 by Sabine Lichtenfels and Rainer Ehrenpreis. The goal of the foundation is to promote the establishment of peace research villages worldwide and the training in all areas of knowledge that is necessary for this to occur: regional self-sufficiency in the areas of water, food and energy, social and ecological sustainability, and community-building. With this work we are making an effective and efficient contribution to the healing of the Earth – for a future without war and for a global peace culture with strong communities and autonomous regions, in cooperation with nature.

What is Tamera?

The Healing Biotope I Tamera is a peace research project with the goal of creating a model of society that is free from hatred, lies, violence and fear. Tamera functions as a gobal acupuncture point of peace, a greenhouse of trust, a prototype for an existence free of fear.

Sabine Lichtenfels, born in 1954, is a theologian, a Portuguese representative of the "1000 women for peace", a visionary and co-founder of the Peace Research Center Tamera, of the Global Campus and der Grace Foundation.
Shocked and shaken in 2005 by the impending war in Iran, she went alone on a peace pilgrimage for several months without any money. Her walk led to the first Grace Pilgrimage through Israel and the West Bank in Palestine, and along with it came the founding of the first Global Grace Day on November 9th, which since this time has served as an annual day of commemoration for overcoming all walls. Almost every year since 2005 a Grace Pilgrimage takes place, mostly in crisis areas such as Colombia or the Middle East. Also in 2005 she was nominated by a Swiss initiative for the Nobel Prize as one of the worldwide “1000 Women for Peace.” In Tamera she leads the Global Love School and “Terra Deva,” the department for spiritual research

Born into an impoverished yet culturally meaningful jewisch banking family in Germany, the issues of reconciliation, politics and money were accompanying Benjamin right from the beginning this lifetime.

After a somewhat radical but frustrating political engagement throughout the youth, he started to explore more holistic approaches to change-making. In this process he co-founded the Peace University Potsdam and later explored many social experiments and intentional communities. Even though he trained as healer, dancer and choreographer, he kept his focus on new life models with a great passion for complex synergies and system theory. Most important is the coming together of seemingly opposing forces: political and spiritual work, vision work and concrete manifestation and central: inner and outer peacework.

Right now is a carrier of the Grace Foundation and a member of the government of Tamera.

33 years old, one of the initiators and holders of the Vision Camp. Lee is a peace worker from Israel, co-founder of the Musaique project that connects Middle-East nations and religions through musicians from Israel, Palestine, Jordan and Egypt. This video was created during the Egyptian revolution: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-6eW_V3ph94&list=UUFCrFygP1i28V3Ye_Kagx_w She is also an initiator of the Humanitarian aid for Gaza during the war of 2009: http://www.israel21c.org/social-action-2/israeli-donors-offer-aid-and-ho... As a bridge builder, writer, and group facilitator, she also holds dreaming workshops for women. Lee is a unique example by creating direct and faithful friendships with people from the whole Middle-East land.

34 years old, is a journalist, history teacher and a facilitator in the school of peace in Neve-Shalom Wahat al-Salam. He has been a student in Monte Cerro Peace education of Tamera and a committed carrier of the Peace Research Village vision. Uri has a long history of political activism. He participated and organized many demonstrations, and was one of the founders of "Anarchists Against the Wall" - an Israeli direct action group. As being a carrier of a great vision of Peace in the Middle-East, he is refusing to be rolled into the reserve army service out of conscientious objection.

24 years old, is a muslim woman, a kinder-garden teacher from Palestine-Israel. She grew up in the mixed city of Lod where Arabs, Jewish, Russian, Ethiopian and people from different identities share their daily life. “I grew up in a reality that I call peace. In these hard days of war I struggle to keep my belief that people create there own life on this planet.” She now lives in the peace village Wahat el Salam-Neve Shalom that creates a community of Arabs and Jewish living together. She has the vision to create a kinder-garden creating multi cultural education, including children with special needs as a part of the society and cooperating with groups of parents and teachers.
"I have a dream that I will wake up in the morning feeling trust and faith in this world.”
“I see visiting Tamera as an adventure to let me be the human being that I believe in and create together with more people planet of faith, trust, love and communication.”

42 years old
One of the initiators for the vision camp,A co-founder of the Peace Research Village Middle East. A rabbi, vision holder, giving spiritual support for sick and dying people, spiritual teacher who is inspired by the Jewish resources. Made a campaign in the streets of jerusalem in which sentences from Psalms were interpetated to promote peace and transformation in the public conciousness. Initiated an action for blood donation from Israelis to the people in Gaza. Wrote a book named: "Ho my soul, praise Being!" in which she interpreted and illustrated sentences from Psalms.

20 years old, young woman from the arabic village Eilaboun, Israel is a photographer, musician, discoverer of life. Lately joined the PRV-ME group. She participated actively in the vision camp and shared the song that she composed "Love is the religion".

46 years old, is a Palestinian woman from the village nearby the vision camp place. One of the brothers was shot by the Israeli military when she was a child. Her mother was an activist and protested against the killing and went to jail because of this for 5 years. She became the spoke women for a group of families from both sides who lost their beloved ones. She was active for many years in peace work and reconciliation. In the last years she got tired from peace gatherings and seeks a new vision for Peace. She just finished to write a book “Magash” about her life and mainly about the feelings of a lost childhood. “If we know about the deeper feelings of each other we can come back to our source of humanness.”

42 Years old. One of the coordinators of the vision camp. Dror is a
resident of the Kadita Eco-Village in the north of Israel where he
leads and particiaptes in community building and environmaental
restoration. He is an activist engaged in a wide range of cultural
innovation fields including peace work, education, human rights,
economy, ecology and government. He is also a teacher, a therapist and
an entrepreneur.

Dear supporters!
A small surpise and sign of guidance happened within the last hours: due to technical complications the DANA team extended our campaign until the end of August. For the past 2 days we had difficulties to insert offline payments which we received into our campaign-page, and they wanted to give us time to update. Now the problem is resolved and 2600€ could be added to the funding goal. So now we are at 80% of the 10.500€ we're aiming for. We planned the campaign to...

The International Summer University in the Tamera Peace Research Center ended on the 10th of August. All participants of the Summer University carried out a powerful peace action for Gaza and the Middle East, with the political artist John Quigley, giving their statement to "refuse to be enemies". A short video of this initiative can be seen here: http://bit.ly/1ljicTe

Report of the Vision Camp + Thank you E-Card with signatures of all participants

2 Claimed.

Gift €50 or more

Title:

Global Campus calendar 2014

Report of the Vision Camp + Thank you E-Card with signatures of all participants+ Global Campus Calender 2014
(Global Campus is a peace education in cooperation with Tamera)

1 Claimed.

Gift €100 or more

Title:

Global Campus calendar 2015

Report of the Vision Camp + Thank you E-Card with signatures of all participants + Global Campus Calender 2015

8 Claimed.

Gift €500 or more

Title:

Book "Grace"

Report of the Vision Camp + Thank you E-Card with signatures of all participants+ Global Campus Calender 2015 + Book "GRACE - pilgrimage for a future without war" by Sabine Lichtenfels

1 Claimed.

Gift €1500 or more

Title:

Personal report

Report of the Vision Camp + Thank you E-Card with signatures of all participants+ Global Campus Calender 2015 + Book "GRACE - pilgrimage for a future without war" by Sabine Lichtenfels + personal report by the person you want to fund via skype